show her a beefburger packet from tesco's ... that should do the trick :hysterical It is difficult isn't it a friend of mine had a similar problem with one of his sheep once - we spent all weekend in turns feeding the damn thing - I was glad to get back to work for the rest ! next question is if you rear the kid will "mum" do it again? if so maybe she's not destined to stay with you.

I think I am starting to work out the solution - I have started treating her like the stroppy cow that she is, if she bites me while I am milking she gets bitten back etc etc. Either tomorrow or Saturday she will go out with the shepherd and I think that might help her frame of mind and I will milk her before she goes so I can bottle feed the kid in the day time. I suspect with a few weeks of being stroppy back that she will realise that it is much easier just to accept - here's hoping!

NTG - I have nothing to base this on but I would be inclined to think that a first kidding is a steep learning curve and that maybe from now on she will settle down a bit but if anyone knows differently please let me know!

Give her some of this Zoe :answerme :answerme :answerme Back in my shepherdess days we did the same,"you will feed this lamb wether you like it or not!" We would give it a week or so and if not successful the ewe was marked as a bad mother and sent off to market at the end of lambing.

Different for you though as you will want to give her one more chance to see if she does the job fully next time.

Hopefully she will realise you are the boss and give in.

Patterdales..there is no doubt they are addictive,therein lies the danger.While living with lots,you will grow poorer and stranger.

Sometimes they take a while to get the hang of it, but as K9 says sometimes they are just bad mums, although that doesnt mean that next year she wont be a good mum. Are you sure she hasnt got a touch of mastitis which might make it a bit painful when the kid suckles. When we had triplets we used to top up with a bit of goats milk, and the lambs got a bit of mum and a bit of goats milk. Its such a pain tho, much easier when mum does it all. We did have one lamb that used to nip and suckle from another ewe without her noticing!!

Do you think she will accept the kid when she gets back from her daily outing? Is that what you do out there............................

It never worries me when I get a little lost, all I do is change where I'm going

She has bonded with the kid, she cleans her etc and calls her so I have no doubts she will come trotting back to greet her kid tomorrow - she was quite scared of her when she was first born though, she didn't ignore her but she backed off looking worried - I don't think she knew what it was!

Quote:She has bonded with the kid, she cleans her etc and calls her so I have no doubts she will come trotting back to greet her kid tomorrow - she was quite scared of her when she was first born though, she didn't ignore her but she backed off looking worried - I don't think she knew what it was!

Maybe if the other goats have a word with her when she is out with them, she will come back a new Nanny

It never worries me when I get a little lost, all I do is change where I'm going

Out here most mums are sent out with the shepherd two to three days after the kids are born. I know of at least one person who doesn't feed the kids all day until the mums return and it's an eight hour day but I intend to give a lunchtime feed, even if it's only a few ounces. I suspect it will only be for a couple of weeks until they are eating a bit of hay and have grown some more and therefore can hold more feed for those eight hours.

Ah! in my naivity,i didnt know the kids were seperated for large amounts of time at such a young age.Luckily its not so long before theyre able to fend for themselves a bit more then( ie eating hay etc),bless them.See how she goes in the next day or so,im sure youll get a good indication of how she is going to do.Fingers crossed she misses the bubs after the first day.

Mine will have been home with the kids for a week and I have had to be quite insistent that they haven't gone back out yet. I met the 5 kids that are being left all day and would say they all look quite contented sunning themselves without a mum in sight and only two of them are as old as my two but I was rather shocked although I suspect it is quite normal out here and probably goes for the sheep as well